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Monday, December 2, 2013

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Any of my fellow geeks been watching Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?  Well I have and I love it!  Unfortunately, there isn't consensus on this.  I'm going to point to this article real quick.  Take a minute, read that and come back.  Go ahead.  I'll wait.

Ok, you're back. Good.  What did you think?  Well despite the gloom and doom, turns out M.A.O.S. isn't doing all that bad. It kinda stings to lose to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer though.

So here's my defense of the show.  M.A.O.S. joins a long list of TV shows that feature clandestine government agencies dedicated to investigating "strange" things.  What a lot of people don't realize is that S.H.I.E.L.D. in its comic form predated them all...by a lot.  Like try 1965.  Yes, it was that long ago that S.H.I.E.L.D. first appeared in the Marvel Comic's Universe.  So to make the comparison to shows like The X-Files, Fringe and Warehouse 13 are fair.  The difference here is in the Marvel universe it's a confirmed fact that there are strange things going on, that magic exists, that aliens exist, that people with extraordinary abilities exist.  The threats are real and everybody knows it.  S.H..I.E.L.D. isn't quite as clandestine as the other guys.  They operate freely while in other shows of this kin there's usually a massive coverup involved.  Not to say that S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't have secrets, but it's well known in the Marvel universe that if something strange happens S.H.I.E.L.D. is on it.

I want to go through Leo Sun's 3 points for fixing Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Mistake #1: Built on faulty 1990s logic

 I don't get this point.  How does he look back at other Whedon shows and says that style of storytelling is dated?  I see a number of shows today that operate the same way and are successful.  As for comparing this to other shows, I've already covered that.

Mistake #2: Not "Marvelous" enough

Ok, this is probably the one that has all the people you jumped ship from this show nodding.  To this I say these people never understood exactly what S.H.I.E.L.D. is about and what they do.  If you were expecting Marvel Heroes and Villains to show up left and right (we actually did see a few) then you were going to be disappointed from the jump.  Granted there are super powered individuals who work with S.H.I.E.L.D. and are agents but the list is pretty short (Captain America has been introduced as a S.H.I.E.L.D. asset but isn't officially an agent).  Knowing Joss Whedon, he wanted to spend time developing the characters before he starts introducing limelight stealing supers.  The fans have a wishlist of characters we'd like to see in the future though.

Mistake #3: Lack of compelling story arcs or backstories

There he goes again.  Right now, 9 episodes in, huge story arcs aren't going to happen.  Anyone who has watched Whedon's previous works knows that.  We're going to get one pretty soon though.  In the meantime: Coulsen's resurrection is still haunting us, we have a pending backstory that just has to be told for Melinda May, the mystery of Skye's parents also lingers, watching Fitz and Simmons grow into their roles as field agents remains endearing, and Ward's mentoring of Skye is also fun to watch.  I really feel like I've finally gotten a hold of these characters, what drives them and what motivates them.

Here's my prediction:  This show is about to shift from good to epic really soon.  Either way, I'm enjoying the ride.

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